Journal
AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL ON AGEING
Volume 29, Issue 4, Pages 150-154Publisher
WILEY-BLACKWELL
DOI: 10.1111/j.1741-6612.2010.00418.x
Keywords
emergency department; frail older people; nursing homes; primary care
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Funding
- State Health Research Advisory Council of the Department of Health, Government of Western Australia
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Aim: To assess the impact of an enhanced primary care service for residential aged care facilities (RACF) on the transfer of patients from RACF to a hospital emergency department (ED). Methods: A before-after study of an enhanced primary care service provided by experienced ED-based nurses under the governance of general practitioners. The intervention was analysed comparatively using standardised normal deviates and seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average models, complemented by qualitative assessment. Results: There was a statistically significant reduction (17%, P < 0.001) in the number of transfers during the intervention period. This finding held when adjusting for the seasonality of ED referrals over a 4-year period. The intervention was highly valued by clinicians in RACF and ED. Conclusion: Enhanced primary care services reduce the number of transfers to ED from RACF.
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